Holiday decorating can be a little tricky

Graphics

There's something frightening in my garage right now, and it's not just the mess: It's the specter of Halloween decorations that no one's bothered to hang in the yard.

Since my kids were little, we've always gone a tad overboard. We're not Halloween-iacs like some people I know, but we do like our jack o' lanterns, hanging lights, goblins, cobwebs, skeletons and witches.

The yard always looks so cute and funny when we're done, and we get lots of compliments from the neighbors, except for the grumpy ones next door who don't like anything we do. (Though if a moving truck pulled up in front of our house, they'd probably be on the porch, jumping for joy.)

Fixing up the yard for Halloween always seems an easy transition, too, into the larger holiday season.

I usually take down the Halloween decorations and hang the Christmas lights at the same time – though I don't turn the red-and-green bulbs on until a more socially acceptable time.

It can be tricky, deciding exactly when it's OK to flip the switch on the holiday yard décor.

Too early, and you look like one of those oddballs who keeps their Christmas lights on all year.

Excuse me, ma'am, but why do you
still have colored icicles twinkling in your front yard? Considering it's October?

That's a question I always wanted to ask a woman who lives at the end of our street. Maybe she just procrastinated long enough now that the holiday's here again. Good strategy. I'll have to think on that one.

Halloween, of course, is entirely different from Christmas
because the lights have different colors.

You decorate with orange and purple for Halloween. Red, blue, green and white for Christmas. Write it down.

Unless you're Jewish, in which case you don't do anything, unless you're a tiny bit eccentric and put up blue-and-white Hanukkah displays, which this year should go up before Thanksgiving, which also happens to be the first day of Hanukkah.

Got that? Good. Then let's move on.

Really, someone should invent holiday lights that change colors at the push of a button. Then you only have to decorate once from September to January. C'mon, Orange County. You're out there busily inventing artificial hearts and TV channels for dogs. I believe in you. You can do it.

I only recently got to know people who don't celebrate Halloween due to religious convictions.

But I can't see Halloween as a sinister plot against God. I think he probably gets a kick out of it, knowing that all those witches and goblins are going back into a box in the garage in a few weeks.

A few of the readers on my Facebook page told me they actually decorate more now, as adults, because their families' religious beliefs kept them from celebrating as children.

It is true that the roots of Halloween predate Christianity, but so do many of the rituals we celebrate in the world. It's just that Halloween was never turned into a religious observance like so many others. Though many Catholic countries are very serious about observing All Souls' Day, a pre-Christian ritual that was Catholicized a long time ago.

Visiting Mexico for Day of the Dead is one of my favorite trips. Contrary to what many people believe, this festival doesn't celebrate death, but the annual return to earth of the souls of departed loved ones, for one day only.

So, really, it's a festival of love, and triumph over death. There's always lots of laughter and good food, including sugar skulls and special “bread of the dead.” I love seeing the altars people create, with their loved ones' favorite things on it.

When my children were small, there was no such thing as over-the-top decorating for Halloween. Just like there was no such thing as too much ice cream.

By the end of September, they were already begging me to get out the big orange-and-black plastic bins filled with plastic skulls, lighted skeletons, flying witches and the like.

In those days, they wanted to do the decorating, but I limited them to stretching the fake spider webs, in order to keep them from being electrocuted by hanging lights. Also, for aesthetic reasons, since I suspected a 7-year-old's idea of a tastefully executed bloody zombie graveyard would not be the same as mine.

Nowadays, both kids are teenagers, and it's really not the same. Not only do they
not pester me to put up the hangings, but they actively resist when I tell them to get the bins out of the garage.

In response, last year I didn't put up anything until the morning of Oct. 31, when the prospect of trick-or-treaters coming to my house with no blinking lighted mummies or talking pirates just horrified me.

I hurriedly got out some decorations and threw them up myself.

This year, I've noticed orange lights starting to appear around the neighborhood, which means it's time. This week, I'm going to insist that the kids do the decorating, and I will be the foreman. We're not waiting until the last minute.

If you hear any screaming and yelling from my house and see random bloody limbs flying, don't call the cops. It's just artistic differences over the décor.

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.